1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photo-taking apparatus for photo-taking a still image and/or a moving image, a control method adapted for the photo-taking apparatus, and a computer program product supplying a control program adapted for the photo-taking apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, image processing apparatuses, such as electronic cameras, arranged to use, as a recording medium, a memory card having a solid-state memory element and to record or reproduce a still image or a moving image on or from the memory card have already been put on the market, and electronic cameras arranged to be equipped with an electronic viewfinder, such as a color liquid crystal panel, have also been put on the market.
In each of the electronic cameras of the above-mentioned kind, since images formed before a photo-taking operation can be continuously displayed, it is possible for the user of each electronic camera to decide a composition for the photo-taking operation while viewing the displayed images, and since a photo-taken image can be reproduced and displayed immediately after the photo-taking operation, it is possible for the user to confirm the photo-taken image. In particular, some electronic apparatuses have such a highly-convenient function as to form a panorama image by combining a plurality of photo-taken images, which function is useful to the user of each electronic apparatus.
In addition, electronic cameras having an image-shake correcting function for preventing any shaken image from being photo-taken, i.e., having an image-stabilizing mode, have also been put on the market.
In the above-mentioned conventional image processing apparatus, such as an electronic camera, the user thereof, in some cases, changes the setting of the image-stabilizing mode during the process of photo-taking a panorama image. In this instance, when forming a panorama image by combining a plurality of photo-taken images, it is, in some cases, impossible to correct a difference in the amount of image-shake correction caused by the change of the setting of the image-stabilizing mode.
Further, the user of the image processing apparatus, such as an electronic camera, in some cases, changes the setting of the image-stabilizing mode, during the process of photo-taking a panorama image, between an optical image-stabilizing mode for the correction of an optical system and an electronic image-stabilizing mode for the correction of a reading-out area of photo-taken image data. In this instance, when forming a panorama image by combining a plurality of photo-taken images, it is, in some cases, impossible to correct a photo-taken image affected by the erroneous mixing of image-stabilizing modes having respective different image-shake correcting effects.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, there are provided a photo-taking apparatus which sets performing a plurality of correlated photo-taking operations and prevents setting of an image-stabilizing function from being changed during the plurality of correlated photo-taking operations, so that it is possible to prevent inadequate setting of the image-stabilizing function from being performed when a plurality of correlated photo-taking operations, such as in a panorama photo-taking operation, are performed, a control method adapted for the photo-taking apparatus, and a computer program product supplying a control program adapted for the photo-taking apparatus.
The above and further aspects and features of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.